Future Warnings

Indoctrination schooling, cancel culture, tech dominance, history erasure, government-dictated media, de-platforming— nightmarish realities seemingly emerging without any precedent or justification. No one had foreseen the arrival of any of these disturbing trends, no one except perhaps, Eric Arthur Blair, later to be known by the pseudonym George Orwell.

Born in India to European parents in 1903, Orwell studied in England before serving with the colonial police in Burma in 1922. Resigning in 1928, Orwell retreated to the slums of London and Paris, living a willfully meager existence as a conscious reaction to his personal attitudes on his experiences in Burma. This inspired his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London, published in 1933.

The Road to Wigan Pier, published in 1937, cemented Orwell’s socialist agenda while he enlisted in the militia of the Spanish Civil War. These experiences soon inspired Orwell’s newfound fears regarding communism which he expounded on in Homage to Catalonia, published in 1938.

In 1943, Orwell became literary editor of the socialist newspaper, The Tribune. The novella Animal Farm followed, which allegorically depicted the Russian Revolution with an array of farm animals. This paved the way for the work his name would forever be synonymous with. Nineteen Eighty-four, published in 1949, addressed the threat of Nazism and totalitarianism in a not-so-distant future.

In the novel, the story’s protagonist clashes with a draconian government which alters and censors previous accounts of history and monitors citizens by employing ‘Thought Police’ who seek to brainwash and eradicate any elements of individuality. Orwell’s greatest contribution to literature would also be his last. He succumbed to tuberculosis in London in 1950 at 46.

To now say that Nineteen Eighty-four fortuitously prophesied present developments is an arguable understatement. A rapidly evolving political climate where any dissent from those in power is immediately labeled as “misinformation” and even “immoral” obviates how many of Orwell’s 20th Century fears have been realized thus far.

The symbiotic development of these ideas within one year of Covid lockdowns can’t be chalked up to coincidence. A grimly premeditated power grab has clearly been made by those eager to take advantage of a dire global crisis.

Ironically, young Americans whose predecessors once burned draft cards have moved on to burning books. Presently, one wouldn’t exactly be alarmist to imagine Orwell’s work itself as the next pile on the bonfire.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

Will their utopia become your dystopia? By George, let’s hope not.

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Christopher Robinson

Eating the Chains

Applebee’s? Chili’s? Cracker Barrel? Personally I’m not overtly drawn to any of the ubiquitous ‘casual dining’ restaurant chains. The trusted legions of corporate eateries across the land certainly corner an array of markets for various cravings and their convenience is always the bottom line.

Given my choice, I’d likely pick Olive Garden or Red Lobster. Both brands have stood the test of time and hold a fairly decent track record for quality and value. Both, in fact, were owned by the same parent corporation until Red Lobster had been recently sold by Darden Restaurants, Inc., a Fortune 500 company that also runs Longhorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze and others.

Both Olive Garden and Red Lobster boast considerable menus, sociable bar areas and a combined 1,649 global locations. Both are also appreciated for trademark signature garnish items. Olive Garden’s buttery garlic breadsticks and Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuits usually tempt customers more than the hearty entrees on their menus.

I always enjoyed the buffet-style restaurants that are popular in the mid-west and southern states. California-based Sizzler has long specialized in steak, seafood and salad bars— that is, until Covid restrictions recently caused them to file for Chapter 11. I suppose their future now remains on the back burner.

I recall another ‘all-you-can-eat’ establishment called Big Wrangler that seemed rather outstanding. Another home-style buffet chain was the Texas-based Bonanza, which can also go by the name Ponderosa. If that seems slightly familiar, it’s because it was originally begun in 1963 by Dan Blocker who played Hoss on NBC’s Bonanza from 1959-1972. Blocker sold his ownership of the chain three years later.

My least favorite of the lot is probably TGI Fridays, which was founded in New York in the 1960s and now headquartered in Dallas,Texas. My mainly esoteric issue stems primarily from a dining experience in which I had ordered only an appetizer but, from what I remember, it wasn’t prepared properly. 

As my service was equally bad, I wasn’t able to complain before leaving but I later emailed the general manager on the restaurant’s website. Since their official response to my polite inquiry was basically ‘Too bad, buddy,’ I wondered why they chose to respond at all. Wouldn’t remedying a tiny problem of one customer be worth it to prevent the guy from never returning to their restaurant as well as bad-mouthing it to everyone he knows? That's okay, I suppose. It’s not like he’d ever gripe about the incident to the entire world in a blog one day, right?

While thinking back on Fridays experiences, I actually recall another occasion that should conversely give me reason to look upon them with favor. One evening, on a rare occasion, a friend and I had spent a few hours at a table and ordered appetizers, entrees, and a few rounds of beer. With tax and tip, our total bill between us must have come close to about $100 (Well, for us it was a lot, anyway). Nice thing was, we never had to fork anything over. It was a mysterious undisclosed circumstance that forced the manager to ‘comp’ our bill and rush us out of the building, despite our offer to pay. Confused, we walked out to the parking lot, among the vacated clientele and staff. My quip?

“Glad I called in that bomb threat.”

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Christopher Robinson